Divvy Expansion Likely to Bring Bikes to South Shore, West Toward Pulaski

By DNAinfo Staff on November 8, 2013 1:28pm

City officials hope to receive a federal grant that will expand the Divvy bike-sharing program to neighborhoods such as Austin and South Shore.
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DNAinfo files/Erica Demarest

CHICAGO — The Divvy bike-sharing program will likely add stations to the South Shore neighborhood and as far west as Pulaski Road in 2014, a city transportation official said Friday.

Exact locations for expansion haven't been determined yet, and an initial draft map could be made public in December, said Assistant Transportation Commissioner Sean Wiedel.

"We are definitely going to be expanding in all directions equally," Wiedel said. "We're figuring out where those boundaries are going to be."

The city will install 175 new stations next year, 75 of which will be funded through a $3 million federal grant, making Divvy the largest bike-sharing program in North America in terms of stations. It still greatly trails New York, however, in the number of users.

The Chicago Department of Transportation has also applied for a separate $3 million federal loan that could expand to service to Oak Park and Evanston.

The city likely won't hear back about that until early next year and is conceiving expansion plans without figuring those two suburbs in. As a result, some West Side neighborhoods might not get stations in the near future.

"We can't grow out in Garfield Park and Austin unless there's a place to go to from there," Wiedel said.

Some of the potential station locations can be seen on the Divvy website.